Tag: Dynamic-architecture

Our constant need of new, cleaner energy led a Michigan State University research group to conceive a fully transparent solar panel that could replace ordinary windows, or even cover entire buildings. They designed perfectly clean solar cells, essentially equal to a regular glass window.

If you try to picture a modern city in your mind, it is almost inevitable to think about high buildings. In this era we are reaching for the sky. Back in the 17th century however, something different was happening in Sweden.

They are called ‘backstuga’, literally meaning hill cottages, as most of the houses were actually built low in the ground against hills. By doing this it was possible to use only three walls with the forth one being the bare ground.

Dom Indoors, is the latest research project developed by a construction robotics company called Asmbld. It includes a robotic system that can reconfigure an indoor space within minutes, as well as a family of tiny robots that can assemble modular elements into walls, furniture, or costumed objects according to the needs of users.

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Spain have created a prototype called Hydroceramic: a composite material able to lower the temperature of an interior space by five degrees Celsius. Inspired by the sweating human skin, the team sees the modern architecture as an organism, exploring new design possibilities from both material and behavioural perspectives.

The way we build our structures has become more and more sophisticated over the last decades. But the materials used are always static, waiting for us to fit them to the required shape. What if structures could assemble themselves and change form autonomously?

With the Internet of Things, a growing number of objects have sensors implanted inside them. These sensors help to form a network where objects can communicate with each other and with us. A recent project, named GENESI, might make it possible for city infrastructures to join this conversation as well.

In the forest, plants struggle with each others to gain sunlight. Meanwhile in the ‘urban jungle’ we call cities, plants need to fight against tall buildings and skyscrapers in order to reach fresh air and sun rays.

Inspired by ‘The Vertical Farm’ by Dr. Dickson Despommier, Aprilli Design Studio conceptualized Urban Skyfarm as architectural solution that brings vegetation high up in the air and environmental improvement for food production and distribution.

While science fiction taught us to think of robots as human-like beings, the ones that actually make it into your home will more likely look like furniture. A team at the EPFL Biorobotics Laboratory in Switzerland is developing multipurpose robotic building blocks, called Roombots, that put your regular furniture to shame.

The robotic furniture can self-assemble into a chair and move across the room with you in it, and reassemble into a table that delivers you a glass of water. The researchers created a video that shows them in action.

The new way of erecting houses is no longer brick by brick, but layer by layer of 3D printed materials!

Dutch architects at Dus, together with Ultimaker company, developed a giant version of the small desktop 3D printers. They created the first 3D Print Canal House exhibition, research- and building site for 3D Printing Architecture, in the heart of Amsterdam.